The Olympic Wars
by The Silent Mind
Summary: When the Cullens move to Forks, they find a most special girl who can either make their family complete or break them apart and plunge them into a war with the Volturi. How much will they risk for love and family? Can they survive when one of their own, someone they thought they could trust as part of their family, betrays them?
1. Jane's Visit

Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is property of Stephanie Meyers.

****The parts in bold are Alice's visions of the future.****

* * *

Jane's Visit

**The vampire stalks through the forest of evergreens, eyes bloody red, and hair of spun gold shining in the sunlight. Her footsteps are silent despite the thick snow on the ground. A few feet in front of her, another vampire is crouching over a kill, his back toward his enemy, and completely oblivious to her presence, focused as he is on the feeding. She scrunches up her nose in disgust as a cool breeze sends the bloody scent of the kill towards her. But despite her distaste, she moves toward it and the other vampire.**

* * *

I ran. There's still a little time before she reaches him, I might just make it. At the treeline, I started to climb, jumping from one branch to another, one tree to another. I jumped when I was high enough, aiming for a tree in the distance. I landed perfectly, the branch bends, showering the ground below with the snow it's collected, but it doesn't break, it was strong enough to support my weight. I had chosen well, of course I did, I could see ahead of time which branches would break. I bounced back up with the motion of the branch, and rode it down again. Three dips of the branch, and on the third uplift, I took off, aiming for a branch on another tree further down the slope. Again and again I do this, jumping from tree to tree down the mountain to where I knew I would find Jasper, hopefully before Jane could catch him unawares.

Half a mile out, I dropped from the tree and continued on foot, so she wouldn't hear me in the trees. I approached from behind her, downwind, so she wouldn't catch my scent. She was still watching Jasper feed, and she's too close, I won't be able to intervene in time if she decided to attack. I moved closer, but the snow crunched beneath my feet and she turned toward me. **Alice attacks, leaping toward Jane, but she screams mid-jump as Jane's power falls upon her and she lands in Jane's arms writhing in pain. Jane drops Alice on the ground and the pain is suddenly gone.**

**"I'm not here to look for a fight." Jane says.**

* * *

"I'm not here to look for a fight." Jane said when I hesitated to attack her, and raised her hands in a gesture of peace.

Jasper started from his kill and turned, just noticing Jane's presence now.

"Then why are you here, Jane?" I asked. "This is our land."

"I was just passing through," She answered. "Thought I'd make a little visit."

"Just passing through, yeah right." Said Jasper, he had wiped the blood from his mouth by now, but he didn't move otherwise so Jane was now between the two of us, and if there was a fight, we'd have a better chance attacking from two directions than from one. Though, keeping in mind her power, our better chance was only just better than no chance.

She smiled mysteriously, "Believe what you will," Jane said, "But I do have a message for Carlisle from Aro, so you might want to take me to the rest of your family."

I look from Jane to Jasper and caught his eye, he shrugged, sometimes I forget that he can't sense deception, since it wasn't an emotion. He was usually very good at reading expressions, even vampire expressions, but since Jane was facing me, he couldn't see hers. I hesitated for a moment, but there don't seem to be any fights breaking out if I took her home, so I said:

"Fine, come on then. Jazz, do you need to finish?"

Jasper glanced at his prey on the ground, "Nah, I'm okay."

I nodded, "Then let's go."

I led the way home, with Jane behind me, and Jasper bringing up the rear. It was a strategic move, I was the one who could see the future, so I would see it coming if Jane decided to stab me in the back, both literally and figuratively. And Jasper had my back too if she tried anything, but it still made me uncomfortable to have my back to her.

Rose and Emmett were watching a movie on the couch when we came in, but I could tell they weren't really paying attention, and they weren't as relaxed as they appeared on first glance, they were too still, and forgetting to appear human. They were expecting us, expecting Jane, Edward probably warned them we were bringing her back with us. Edward himself came down the stairs a second later. I caught his eye and showed him what happened in the forest, how we found her, and asked him silently if she was telling the truth, that she's not here to make trouble.

Edward gave me a slight nod, and, **Alice pulls Edward aside and asks:**

**"So? What's she doing here?"**

**"As far as I can tell, she's not here to stir things up," Edward replies, "Her assignment is a bit vague, and she's not thinking about it right now. I've told Carlisle and Esmee that she's here, they'll be here when their shifts are over, they told us to entertain her until they do."**

Edward came down and shook Jane's hand and said, "Jane, welcome, it's an honor to have one of the Vulturi guard visit our humble home, I've informed our parents of your arrival, unfortunately, they can't make it back for a few hours yet, so why don't you make yourself comfortable in the meanwhile and put the official business to the back of your head until they get back."

I smiled inwardly at the nudge Edward gave Jane to get her thinking about her assignment, and I peeked at the future again as Jane thanked Edward for our hospitality.

**"So? What's she doing here?" Alice asks.**

**"Her assignment from Aro was to 'pay us a little visit', and 'wish Carlisle a merry Christmas from him' and ask if we're getting along with our new neighbors." Edward says.**

What is that supposed to mean? "Pay us a little visit." Why would Aro send one of her most trusted lieutenants on such a pointless trip?

**"I don't know what it means either." Edward admits.**

Jane strolled around the living room, nodding to Emmett and Rosalie in greeting as Edward sat down beside them, they nodded back, but otherwise barely gave her a glance to show how they really felt at having her here. Jasper joined her as she stopped to examine one of the handful of contemporary paintings we had hanging in the room.

"What do you think?" he asked.

Jane shrugged, "I don't know, I don't really get it."

"Me either," Jasper said, "I don't really get abstract art, but Carlisle seems to like it, and Alice says it's a good investment."

"It _is_ a good investment," I put in, "We bought that a couple years back for a few hundred dollars, but in ten years, it'll be worth ten times that, and after the artist dies, its value will skyrocket."

"Isn't that a bit of a materialistic way to view art?" Jane criticized.

"It's a pragmatic view, for those of you who are too shallow to get the less substantial aspects of it." I teased.

Jasper smiled, I gave him a wink and went upstairs to take a shower and change my clothes.

The warm water felt nice after being out in the cold of Alaska winter, and though our bodies don't feel cold the same way as humans do the contrast of the warmth feels fantastic after becoming accustomed to the cold.

By the time I got out of the shower, got changed and went back down, Carlisle and Esme were just coming in the door.

"Hello Jane, good to see you again." Carlisle said as soon as he stepped through the door, offering his hand.

Jane shook it, and replied, "Likewise, it's always good to see you and your family. Esme."

"Jane." Esme nodded, shaking hands with Jane.

"I trust that our children made you welcome?" Carlisle asked, inviting Jane to sit down.

We all moved back to the couch and sat down, Emmett and Rosalie turned the TV off and Edward went into the kitchen and poured a bag of human blood in a wine glass for Jane, no doubt in response to a silent request from Carlisle.

"They were very friendly." Jane replied, glancing toward Jasper. "Jasper gave me a little tour of the house, you have a very nice place here." She thanked Edward for the blood and took a sip.

"So Jane, is there a particular reason that you're here or are you just dropping by?" Esme asked with just a hint of hostility, she never liked the Volturi, the way they coveted Edward and me.

"I'm just going around, checking up on the covens that have a permanent address, but you are missed, Carlisle. Aro in particular has been thinking of you."

"Please pass along my respects then, they are in my thoughts too." Carlisle replied.

"Actually, Aro asked me to wish you a merry Christmas from him." Jane took another sip of the blood, then asked casually, "And how are you getting along with your new neighbours?"

"We're getting along fine, actually," Carlisle said, "But I do think there's not enough game around to feed two covens, so we'll probably be moving soon."

"We are?" Emmett asked, and he wasn't the only one who was surprised, Esme and Rosalie were as well, and even me, since I didn't bother peeking at this conversation. But Edward wasn't surprised, and neither was Jasper for some reason. And Carlisle had said this so matter-of-factly, as if we had discussed this many times before, that I was sure that this answer was important. Rosalie seemed to grasp this too, she elbowed Emmett in the ribs.

"Ow! What was that for?" Emmett complained.

Rosalie glared at him and Emmett shut up.

"Yes Emmett, we are," Carlisle said gently, "But we do still have a lot to do before we move."

"Well, don't forget to write when you get to your new place," Jane said. "I'd love to come visit some time."

"Of course." Carlisle said, smiling courteously.

* * *

Jane didn't stay the night, she left after a couple of hours of small talk, and we all sat down and looked to Carlisle. It was Rosalie who spoke first:

"So are we really moving?"

Carlisle nodded.

"Why?" Emmett asked.

"Because the Volturi will make trouble for us if we don't." Jasper answered, "They sent Jane to ask how we're getting along with our neighbors, they're afraid we'd make an alliance with the Russians, in which case we'd be strong enough to start a war with them if we want to, where they would have no assurance of their victory."

Jasper, always the strategist, of course that would explain why Aro sent one of his most trusted, most powerful lieutenants with such a meaningless mission, because it's not meaningless.

Our family was the second largest coven of vampires after the Volturi, with seven members, and the Russians are almost as large, with five, and some of us have powers like Edward and me. If we did make an alliance, it would be enough to not only threaten the Volturi's position, but we'd have a real chance of overthrowing their rule. With other covens they probably wouldn't care if two were in close proximity, but the fact that both our covens abstain from human blood makes it a problem. Normally, with vampires who drink human blood, they are less inhibited and less compassionate, and they are very territorial, and any two covens that come in to close proximity with each other would enter a territorial war until only one coven is left. But since we don't drink human blood, we are less territorial, and have better control over our instincts and that, I think, is what threatens the Volturi more than anything else.

"So we'll be moving." Carlisle said, "It's about time anyways, we've been here for a long time, time enough for people to notice something strange about us."

"But we've only talked about some choices," Esme put in, "We haven't even made a decision on where we'll go next yet, never mind the preparations."

"I know," said Carlisle, "But we have no choice, if we delay too long, the Volturi will get suspicious again and start moving against us."

"So where are we gonna go?" Edward asked. Carlisle must really have no idea which option is the best if Edward can't get at it.

Carlisle thought for a long while, then said, "Forks."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hello all, I'm posting again, this one is in a completely different fandom than my last one. With my last one I wanted to practice writing in the third person limited POV, with this, I'm trying to figure out plotting. Plotting is a little harder for me, especially with Alice's visions of the future, so I might be needing a Beta reader, if anyone is interested and has the time, please PM me.

In the interest of giving credit where credit is due, the idea for this story came from a suggestion in a review for a story I saw a while back while browsing. The suggestion was made by vampwriter, and the review was for a story (Alice's Feline) by magikedforyou. I was intrigued by the supernatural creature Vampwriter suggested Bella should be, I looked it up, and a series of implications began to spin out in my mind. I haven't been able to get the idea out of my head. Vampwriter also suggested a premise of a story with the idea, but it's completely different from my own idea and the premise of this story. I'm not sure yet how big of a spoiler Bella's nature will be (i.e. what supernatural creature she is), so I didn't want to come right out and say what she was, but if anyone wants to find out, you can just look for the review in the story I mentioned.


	2. Forks

A/N: Hello, sorry this chapter took so long, I had to do some pretty heavy editing with this. I'm afraid I can't promise that future chapters will come any faster, so thanks to all who are planning on sticking with this story, who favourited and/or followed. So, read and review, constructive criticisms welcome (emphasis on constructive), especially since I still don't have a beta reader.

Disclaimer: Twilight Saga is property of Stephanie Meyers.

Forks

* * *

Jane had come in the first week of December, and by the time school had ended for Christmas break, we had everything prepared: Carlisle and Jasper had contacted our forger and we now had documents showing that Carlisle was the descendant of himself, and the rest of us got either adoption papers or birth certificates saying that Carlisle and Esme were our lawful guardians, and we were all ready for the move to Forks.

Forks was a place we'd all heard of before, but only Carlisle, Esme, and Edward had ever been there, back before the rest of us joined the family. The property there had always been kept under the Cullen name, Carlisle's original name, and it was one of the first properties that Carlisle acquired when he came to America at the turn of the twentieth century, and now we had forged documents showing Carlisle was the descendant of himself, returning with the rest of us, his children, to an ancestral home. But even though the rest of us have never been here, we'd all heard stories about it, especially about the tribe of werewolves living on the Native American reservation close by. And we'd heard about the treaty that was struck between Carlisle and the tribe's elders. There was some concern initially about whether the treaty would still be honored, but Carlisle said it should still hold, but even if it doesn't, we shouldn't have too many run-ins with them if we didn't go onto the reservation.

We had decided to celebrate Christmas at the new house, and it was Christmas Eve when we finally got on the plane headed to Seatle, ready to start a new life.

The house was modern, despite the fact that the property had belonged to Carlisle for a long time. The original house had been an old Victorian mansion, and not a little gothic, I'd seen pictures of it from the late '20s and early '30s, with Carlisle, Esme and Edward standing in front of it. That house had been torn down at the turn of the twenty-first century, and the new one was built in its place. It was three stories, painted white and glowing with warm Christmas lights when we first arrived.

"It looks good," Edward said as we all got out of the car. "Much better than that monster of a mansion it replaced."

I laughed, an unformed thought about vampires and gothic mansions floated across my mind. Ed gave me a glance, his eyebrows quirked up in amusement, reading my mind. We went in and took off our coats, then spread out to take a look at the house. The living room was decorated like a Christmas commercial, with a blazing fireplace, a ten-foot tall Christmas tree drooping with the weight of decorations and garlands and mistletoes hung all over the place. Carlisle had hired someone to do all this, to get it ready for our arrival, and the only things out of place were the boxes we had shipped over from Alaska. The rest of the house was much plainer, with only the furniture brought in. The entire house was three above-ground stories and a basement, with the back of the house looking south out of glass walls. There was a balcony on the second floor, built on top of the roof of the kitchen on the first floor. The kitchen we didn't really need, since we don't cook, but the house was build by humans, and it would have looked weird if we chose to do without it. I took a room with access to the balcony, looking eastward, and in my mind, I could see the sunrise over the mountains on a clear day. The others had all chosen their rooms as well when I got down to the living room to get my boxes. Even Rose and Emmett claimed a room even though they'll be leaving in January to get some alone time. I had a vision of them soon after Jane's visit, on the island off the coast of Brazil that Carlisle bought Esme.

I unpacked my boxes, mostly books, a few CDs, and my computer, everything else in my room was new, most bought by the others as Christmas presents this year. I moved the furniture around, and when I thought I was finished, I looked around to make sure they were arranged the way I liked, and as I did, I slipped into the future to take a peek. There was nothing interesting, no excitement, it seems like a peaceful Christmas for the Cullens. Carlisle would go and see about the treaty between Christmas and New Year's, but there were no problems, it seems that the treaty stands. The only significant thing happens when we go to school again. That is where we will meet someone very important to our family. A girl, I couldn't see her face clearly, but she had dark hair, pale skin, and smelled like fresh snow and pine resin in winter. From there, everything explodes into a million possibilities.

**She marries Edward.**

**She marries him and has a child by him, everyone is astonished, that was always thought to be impossible.**

**She is the cause of a war between the Cullen family and the local werewolves.**

**She is the cause of a war between the Cullen family and the Volturi because Edward died at their hands.**

**No, the war with the Volturi is because she was a human who knows about vampires.**

**No, her child by Edward is the cause of the war with the Volturi.**

**No, the war is between the Cullen family and an army of newborn vampires, she is still at the heart of it.**

**She dies at the hands of an unknown vampire and her father finds out the truth, reigniting an age-old war between vampires and humans.**

**She marries Alice.**

I let the possibilities collapse. My head was spinning, there were so many possible futures, and too many of those possibilities led to war. And I didn't dare contemplate the set of possible futures where she was with me. I hadn't even known I might date a girl, I wondered if I would really think of her that way. It wasn't very likely. The most likely futures were those where she was dating Edward. Another vision came:

**The phone rings, someone picks up, a woman's voice comes through the line, speaking Italian.**

**"May I speak to Jane please?" Jasper says once the woman stops.**

**"One moment please." The woman says, this time in English.**

**A few moments later Jane comes on line.**

**"Hello Jane, it's Jasper, Merry Christmas."**

**"Merry Christmas to you too, how's the family?" Jane asks.**

**"Good, thank you for asking. In fact, we've just moved to Washington State. Carlisle wanted me to inform you, so that if we can be of any service to the Volturi, you'll know where to find us."**

**"Why, thank you for saying that. I'm sure Aro would appreciate it."**

**An awkward pause.**

**"We enjoyed your visit with us in Alaska." Jasper says, his tone less formal now.**

**"Really? Why don't I believe that?" Jane asks, her tone amused.**

**"Well, it's true," Jasper says. He's lying his ass off, but a slight smile appears on his face nonetheless. "And personally, I enjoyed our little discussion of art, contemporary and otherwise."**

**"Me too." Jane replies, there's a smile in her voice too, and sincerity.**

Jane sounded sincere to me in that last comment, more than I've ever known, not that I know a lot about her, not having much interactions with her. Most of what I knew about her was her reputation, which, in a word, was ruthless, as cold and cruel a vampire as to ever walk the earth, with an ability to match. I've heard that she can cause unimaginable pain just by thinking at you, and the Volturi's control over her and her brother are tenuous at best. It's strange to think that Jasper liked any time he spent in her company.

I shook my head, trying to clear it of these visions of the future. I usually try not to look day-to-day, but every once in a while, I check up to see if we are in danger of being revealed, or any other dangers that might affect our family. Edward does the same, he tries to monitor the thoughts of the humans around us for any hints that they might suspect what we are. To tell the truth, he's much more effective at getting us out of trouble than I am, because suspicion won't always translate into action, and I can see only action and their consequences. It was a role we had taken on ourselves, and I can usually talk with him about things I see in the future that affect out whole family. The conversation between Jasper and Jane will happen in a few hours, and it doesn't seem to put us in any danger, but what comes after might affect Jasper and Jane's life in a big way. But that was still in flux, and I can't see what happens between them past that point.

The other vision was a little different. There were so many possible futures, and such big stakes involved. I decided to talk to Edward about it.

I found his room on the third floor, the same as Carlisle and Esme's. His was the one on the south side of the house, with the entire wall being essentially made of glass. He had a TV hanging on the wall, and a black leather couch, but no bed, otherwise his room was much like mine, with a desk, computer and bookshelves. I chose as mine one of the rooms with a bed because I liked to put my feet up when I read, but we didn't need to sleep, so, absent a bed, Edward had more room for other things.

"Yeah, I need to fill it up a bit more," Edward said, responding to my thoughts.

"I wanted to talk to you about a vision I just had." I said.

Edward nodded and invited me to sit.

I showed him the vision about the girl, sitting down on his couch, wondering what he thought about it all. The girl was important, that was certain, she will become an important part of our family. It's not often that I can see possibilities rather than a series of events, usually that only happens when I look into my own future, when I consider the possible actions I can take, that is when I see the myriad of possible futures. There are some things I can be sure of regarding the futures involving this girl, one is that she is important as a friend, and specifically as a friend. Even in those futures where there is war, she is never our enemy, she is always on our side, an ally, and she will bring joy and happiness to us before the war comes.

But, I have to consider if it's possible to avoid these troubles, and if we could, should we? Could we move away from Forks if it meant avoiding those wars? If we let her into our lives, which is a certainty if we stay in Forks, is it worth the risk of war for whatever joy she will bring into our lives?

"I think it's worth it," Edward said, seeing now my predicament. "I think it's worth a risk of pain to bring a little happiness in our lives."

He sounded a little like Carlisle, saying that, and if it was anything else at risk, I would have agreed with Edward, but this involved all of us, the entire family, and in those futures where war occurred, some of us died, not all, not in all the war futures. There were even a couple of war futures where none of us died, but those futures were fairly unlikely. In some futures, I died, and I always died for this unknown girl, to protect her, but in those futures, I can't be sure that others in the family didn't die after me. I can't see past my own death.

"I think you shouldn't dwell on that," Edward said, "There are so many possibilities, none of them are sure, we can't know that it will come to war."

But did we have a right to decide? Does either of us have a right to decide for the family? Do we have a right to hide this vision from everyone else?

"No," Edward said, again, reading my mind, which was getting seriously annoying.

"Sorry." He said, seeing I was annoyed. But he continued, "You're right, we shouldn't hide this from everyone else, and we don't have the right to decide for everyone, but I still think it's too soon to bring everyone in on it. There are still plenty of futures you've seen where she's in our lives and there's no disaster, right?"

I nodded, "That's true," I agreed, and this time he actually let me talk instead of just reading my mind. "But the disaster futures are just as likely, in some cases more so, and the easiest way for us to avoid it all is to just leave Forks as soon as we can."

I heard what I had just said, and I suddenly knew what Carlisle would say to that. He'd say: You'll never do anything meaningful if you always took the easy way out. It was those kinds of wise sayings that made us look up to him.

"It does sound like him." Edward said, reading my thoughts again.

I took a deep breath to keep from strangling him, "I guess I'll hold off on saying something, at least for now, until at least some of the possible futures are eliminated."

"Good."

"I'll let you get back to organizing." I said.

I went back to my room and listened to music for a little while, lying on my bed, until Emmett and Rosalie called us all into the living room, saying they had something they wanted to tell us.

They sat us down on the brand new couch and, just as I had foreseen, they said:

"Emmett and I were thinking of going away after New Year's."

I could understand why they would want to go away for a while. We would be going back to high school again, this time, Edward and I would be 16, sophomores, and Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett had IDs that said that they were 17, but we'd all have to go back and deal with hormonal teenagers and tedious classes that we've been through a hundred times before. Besides they were married, and it's been a long time since they'd been alone for any length of time, so I didn't blame them, but the rest of us, Jasper, Edward and me, we don't have that excuse, so we'd just have to bear it.

Carlisle of course gave his consent and his blessing for Rose and Emmett to go off on vacation, and when it was just me, Jasper and Edward again in the living room, I put on a chipper face and put away my envy of Emmett and Rose. I put my arms around Jasper and Edward's shoulders and said, "Looks like it's just us single girls at school this semester."

Jasper chuckled, but Edward just scowled and left. I shook my head, "I swear, that boy is terrified of anyone doubting his masculinity. Do you think he's overcompensating for something?" I asked, joking.

"It's harder on him, seeing Emmett and Rose happy." Jasper said, watching Ed go upstairs.

"You think it's easier on me?"

Jasper looked at me and sighed. It's not easy on any of us, he knows that better than anyone. Being what we are, being essentially immortal, it gets lonely sometimes, and it can be exhausting. And though in my family, we have each other to buffer that effect, it's still hard for those of us who don't have a life partner, because there's only so much we can share with family members, even with Ed and Jazz's abilities. Ed can read your every thought, know your every secret if he wanted to, and Jasper can read your moods and emotions like a children's picture book and soothe away everything that's troubling you one way or another, but there's still something missing, at least for me. For me, it seems like they can know you, but not really understand you, like earlier when I was talking to Edward about the girl we'll meet and the futures with her in it. With his gift, he knows all my doubts and the conflicts I'm having because of this vision, but he doesn't understand that I don't just need his opinion, I need to actually talk about it out loud, and for someone to listen. So, with my siblings, while there is companionship (me and Jazz have been friends for almost ninety years, even back before we found the rest of the family), there's not much intimacy. That goes for the physical aspect of the relationship as well as the emotional. Add on top of that how careful we must be in choosing our partners, a girl can really get depressed thinking about it.

One of the problems to choosing partners is that we as a family chose to abstain from drinking human blood, so if we chose vampire partners, they'd have to be open to that idea, which not many vampires are. As for humans, they're fleeting, unless the option of turning them into one of us was seriously considered, in which case we'd really have to be sure they're the one, lest we ruin their life by doing so. So in general, we try to let fate do its business, hoping it would put us in the path of that special someone.

Meanwhile, Emmett and Rosalie had gone upstairs to their room, with Emmett whispering not quite softly enough in Rosalie's ear, something about christening the bed.

Carlisle must have heard it too, because there was a bemused smile on his face as he checked his watch and said:

"And on that note, I think I will give Jane a call and tell her that we've moved."

"Oh, that's okay, Dad," Jasper said. "I'll call her and tell her to pass it on to Aro. Why don't you and Mom go hunt? I know you haven't had a chance to for at least a week because of the move and everything."

Carlisle and Esme exchanged a glance, then nodded, "Sure, thanks Jasper. We'll just go change and see what animals the park has for us."

Jasper nodded and smiled. After Carlisle and Esme went up to their room, Jasper picked up the phone, gave me a look, then headed upstairs.

"Say hi to your girlfriend for me." I teased.

"She's not my girlfriend. This is purely business." Jasper said without looking back.

"Uh-huh."

I picked up the TV remote and turned it on, flipping through the channels and resisting the rising jealousy even as I hoped that Jasper and Jane might find a mate in each other.


	3. At First Sight

A/N: Hi all, thanks to everyone who's following this, sorry it takes so long to update. The plot is close to being original, so it's harder, and I do have completely original stuff I'm concentrating on. I appreciate your patience. One thing I wanted to address before we get to the story, there seem to be some concern regarding Edward and Bella's relationship going deeper into the story. One of the guest reviewers seems dissatisfied with hints of a potential Edward/Bella romance. There are too few reviews for me to accurately gauge how many readers feel this way, so let me just say that this will be without a doubt a Bella/Alice romance. They **will** end up together, but the romance is only part of the story, not the whole, and Edward, and whatever feelings he has for Bella, will serve a very important function in the overall plot of this fic.

Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is property of Stephanie Meyer.

Chapter 3

At First Sight

The day before the holidays ended, before we started at our new school, I went to Carlisle in his office and told him about my vision about the girl despite what I'd talked about with Edward. When I told Carlisle about my doubts, he asked me if I talked to anybody else about this.

"Just Edward." I said, and I told him the agreement we came to, and why I changed my mind. He thought for a moment, then said:

"We should talk this over with the whole family."

I followed him as he made his way out of his office and went to everyone's rooms to call them down to the living room for the family meeting. Jasper was on the phone in his room, and Rose and Emmett were packing some last minute things for their vacation. They'll be leaving tomorrow morning, when we're at school.

Esme and Edward were already in the living room, Esme curled up on the couch with a book, and Edward at the piano, experimenting with a new melody. He looked up when the rest of us came down, and frowned, clearly unhappy that I'd decided to go to Carlisle.

Our adoptive father gathered everyone in front of the 64'' LCD tv and sat them down on the couch.

"Alice?" He said, nudging me to stand in front of the television set before sitting down himself. "Would you tell everyone what you told me?"

I took a deep breath, and told them about the vision I had at Christmas.

"These visions are still the same, nothing's changed about them," I said after telling them about the first time I had that vision. "There are still millions of possible futures that can come from our meeting her, and no single one of them seems more likely than the others, at least for now. But I thought this was too big, it involves too many of us, for me to decide alone, and past the first day of school, there will be no going back, we'll have to stick around for the whole semester. We won't be able to move without people wondering why we were here for such a short time. We would meet her at school, and it would set one of the futures into motion, and what comes after will be harder and harder to control."

Nobody spoke for a good long moment, I haven't had a vision so dramatic since coming into the family, and they all knew it.

"So how important is this girl?" Rose asked.

"Very important." I replied. "The most likely scenarios say she'll marry one of us."

"_One_ of us?" Rosalie said.

I nodded, "In some futures, she marries Ed, and up to now, at least, those are the most likely."

"Who does she marry in the more unlikely scenarios?" Jasper asked.

I was a little embarrassed to tell them, but they needed to know everything, they were my family. "Me." I replied.

Jasper quirked an eyebrow in surprise, and Carlisle exchanged a look with Esme. I worried whether they might see me differently knowing that I might be gay. The issue has never really come up. I think all of us, myself included, just assumed that when we met "the one," we'd be going forward into a heterosexual relationship. Even now, knowing there is that possibility, I still didn't see how it could happen. I have noticed pretty girls before, but I haven't really thought of them quite _that_ way.

"That's not very likely though." Edward was saying, his tone dismissive. "And it's not the issue. The issue is whether we should leave on the possibility of avoiding a possible war. I say no. Why should we give up a chance to get to know this girl who will be so important in all our lives just because _some_ possible futures with her in it leads to war?"

"I think we should leave," I said. "How can we risk our lives for anything this stranger might bring into it?"

"But if she's your mate?" Edward asked. "Or mine? How can we let her go?"

"But it's Mom and Dad's lives we're talking about here," I argued. "And Rose's, and Emmetts, and Jasper's. How would we feel if we lost them?"

"Wait, let me get this straight, Alice," Emmett interrupted as Edward was about to say something else, "This girl might be mate to you or Eddie-boy,"

"Don't call me Eddie-boy!" Edward said.

Emmett ignored him and continued, "And you want to leave before even meeting her? Screw that! I say we stay in Forks,… even though we're leaving tomorrow." He caught his wife smirking at him then and rolled his eyes. "What I mean is, I think you should stay and meet this girl."

"But is it worth your lives?" I asked.

"I think it is, sweetheart," replied Esme. "If she really is as important as you say. You know Carlisle and I would die for any one of you. She's a stranger now, but if she really is 'the one' for you or Edward, I'm sure we will come to love her like we love you, and I'm sure we would be happy to lay down our lives for her, as we would do for you." She looked from her husband to the rest of us, landing on me last and though I didn't have Jasper's power, I could feel her compassion and her certainty that she will come to love this stranger as a daughter. "So I say we stay." Esme voted.

"That's three votes for staying." Carlisle said, "One vote for leaving. Jasper?"

"Only _some_ futures lead to war, is that correct Alice?" Jasper asked.

I nodded.

"Then you should be able to find us a path that can lead us away from war." Jasper said, reasoning it out. "You should be able to see the events leading up to it, and help us make decisions that will lead to a peaceful future."

"What if I can't?" I said. "What if I'm not good enough to see all the things that lead up to war? War is in so many possible futures, how can I know which future we'll be going into?"

"We have faith in you, Alice." Carlisle said quietly.

"You should know better than to doubt yourself, Alice." Rose said. "You're the most powerful vampire in the family."

"I vote we stay." Jasper said.

"It's official," Carlisle said. "We stay." With that, I felt reality snap into place and futures come into focus as those without the mystery girl were eliminated.

Edward looked relieved at the pronouncement, Jasper put his hand on my shoulder, "You see? Everyone has faith in you." Jasper said, "So you shouldn't doubt yourself."

I was surprised, apparently, he knew I was doubting my ability to keep everyone clear of the war-path, and that it was a major reason for me making such a big deal out of this, because there are war-free futures, only I couldn't be sure that I can find them if we start to head toward a war-future. But, seeing their faith in me, I knew I couldn't let them down. Sometimes, it seems, Jasper does understand me.

* * *

The next day, Jasper, Edward and I went to school after saying goodbye to Rosalie and Emmett. It was hell: loud, crowded, and the smell of humans was overwhelming in the chaos of the first day as the students ran around the halls, greeting friends they missed during the break and working out problems with their schedules. Edward, Jasper and I went early to the school with Esme so she could fill out all the forms and register us for school, we were, after all, supposed to be still underage. But even though we were early, it was still late when we finally got out of administration and the first class of the day had only five minutes left, so we skipped it and headed to the next class early.

After we waved goodbye to Esme, the three of us compared our schedules, I had a few classes together with Edward, but none with Jasper. They had one class together, it was advance placement for Edward, but normal for Jasper, since Edward was supposed to be a year younger than Jazz.

The first class I was going to attend, though, didn't have either of them in it, so I said goodbye to the two boys and headed off to class.

The classroom was empty when I arrived, and I picked a seat in the back and sat down. A minute later, the bell rang and I heard doors opening and students stomping out into the hallway. I heard them opening lockers and talking to friends. Soon the first of the students came into the room. One of them came through the door, saw me, and gave a look to his friends, then made a beeline for me. He sat down in the seat beside me even though practically the entire room was empty. He introduced himself as Mike, and said, "I haven't seen you around before, are you new here?"

"Yeah, my family and I just moved here over Christmas." I replied.

"Oh, well, welcome to Forks then." He said.

"Thanks." I said, just to be polite. Then he asked if I would like to go to a movie on Friday. I made an excuse and let show some of my vampiric nature, nothing too obvious, but enough to disturb him, and he gave it up, unsettled. Other students began filing in through the door as Mike got up and changed places to sit by his friends. As the students found their seats, no one else sat beside me, guess their survival instincts were better than Mike's.

Soon, the teacher came in, and the students began to settle down. As the teacher got his notes and textbook out, a girl walked in, _the_ girl. I've never actually seen her face in the vision, but I knew, the moment she walked in through the door, that this was the girl who would be so important to us in the future. She was taller than me, though she can't be considered tall by anyone else's standards, her slenderness gave the illusion that she was taller than she is, with black hair, pale skin- as pale as we were- and blue eyes set in a heart shaped face like sapphires set in marble. She sat down in a seat toward the front, so I didn't get her scent to confirm that she was who I thought she was, but I knew I wasn't wrong.

The teacher told us to settle down, and began to take attendance. I watched for the girl, she answered to the name Isabella Swan. When he was finished, he asked if there was anyone whose name he didn't call. That was my cue. I wasn't on the class list yet because I'd only registered that day. So I went up and showed him my schedule, he penciled me in at the bottom of the list. As I went back to my seat, I passed Isabella Swan, and caught her scent, she smelled like winter and Christmas trees, and it confirmed my earlier conclusion: Isabella Swan was the one.

I spent the whole class wondering about her, and wondering which future would come to pass. I hardly heard a single thing the teacher said, but I wasn't worried about it. I've been through high school half a dozen times before, about once every fifteen years, and only once in a while does anything change enough in any field as to affect the high school curriculum.

I had one more class before lunch, neither Isabella nor Edward was in it. At lunch, I went to the cafeteria to meet up with Jasper and Edward, Jasper was already there, with a tray of human food for the sake of appearances. I went to the line to get some food too, and sat down with Jasper.

"I saw her," I said. "The girl, her name is Isabella Swan. She was in my Algebra class."

I looked around for her, she had just gotten her lunch and sat down at a table by herself, half-facing us. I pointed her out to Jasper. A few minutes later, a few more people joined her, including that Mike guy who tried to hit on me. But Isabella seemed to hold herself a little apart from the group, not quite belonging with them even though they included her in their conversation.

That was when Edward came into the cafeteria, and—

**Edward leaps across the cafeteria toward Isabella, closes the distance in no time flat and sinks his teeth into Isabella's neck. Students scream. Mike tries to be a hero and tackles Edward, driving him off of Isabella. Edward rolls on top of Mike, puts one hand on the back of his head and the other under his chin and twists, snapping Mike's neck. Blood gushes from Isabella's neck and she falls to the floor, unconscious. Edward falls on her again, his eyes black. He finishes feeding quickly, and looks around the cafeteria, the chaos he caused, the trouble that would come from this. He grabs the closest human, kills her, and moves on to the next. Everyone at the school dies, a massacre…**

The vision faded, snuffed out before it can come to pass. I looked at Edward as he sat down, his eyes were dark, but he looked like he was more or less in control.

_"What the hell was that?"_ I shouted at him in a whisper.

"I've never smelled any human who's so appealing." Edward said.

"Thanks for helping me stamp down the bloodlust." He said to Jasper.

Of course, that's why the future of the massacre was extinguished.

Edward looked toward Isabella, he still looked a little shaky.

"I'm fine." He said, reading my mind.

"That's her." I told him. "The one from my visions, Isabella, the one who's going to be so important."

Edward glanced toward Isabella again. I was still a little worried about him, but there was no immediate danger. I glanced over at them too, at the group of friends she was sitting with.

"Only one of them is really her friend," Edward said, reading them. Either trying to pretend everything's normal or trying to keep his mind off of his reaction to her smell. He scowled at me, at my silent analysis of him, but he didn't comment on it, he just continued telling Jasper and me about Isabella's friends, "Angela. They hang out with her because of Angela. The other girls think she's stuck up, but they're jealous of her. The guys all want to go out with her, even those who have girlfriends. She's turned them all down before at least once. Apparently she doesn't date."

I glanced over, she was very pretty, and didn't seem at all stuck up to me, she seemed a little shy if anything, sitting quietly listening to what the others were saying, but only speaking when she was asked something. I focused a little to hear what they were saying, they were talking about us mostly, wondering amongst themselves about what we're like.

"Can you tell what she's thinking Ed?" Jasper asked.

Edward's attention shifted, "Typical stuff, she's wondering about us too, but she's not keen to gossip with the others." Then suddenly he flinched and gasped, covering his ears.

"What happened?" Jasper asked.

Edward looked astonished.

"She knew I was there," Edward said. "She knew I was in her head. She yelled for me to get out."

"How is that possible?" Jasper asked. I was surprised too, I had never heard of anyone, human or vampire, who can know it when Edward was listening to their thoughts.

Isabella was looking at us, she had glanced over at us a few times before, just as her friends did, but now she was staring and I was sure it was Edward reading her mind that attracted her attention. She seemed to be noting our appearances, but she stared longer at Edward than me or Jazz, and there was a curious frown on her face. After a moment, she excused herself from her table and put the rest of her lunch in the trash and left the cafeteria.

Edward rubbed at his temple.

"What's the matter?" I asked, concerned.

"Nothing," Edward said, shaking himself off. "There was something almost like microphone feedback just as she yelled, and it's giving me a bit of a headache."

"She's definitely special, if she knew you were in her head." Jasper said to Edward.

Edward agreed.

"But that's probably not the only reason she's important, at least not to us." I said.

They both nodded. I decided to take a look into my afternoon, see if we'll come into contact with her again today. It seems that I have my last class of the day with her. I couldn't see much farther than the beginning of that class, because I still don't know how I might approach her, and the different conversations are too chaotic to sort through. Besides, if I knew everything that was going to happen, it would be like living through the same thing twice, and that would be tedious.

The afternoon classes were like the morning classes, in that I sat in them half listening to the teacher, thinking of how I might strike up a conversation with Isabella. And when the final class of the day came, I was quite eager to be there. I arrived just as Isabella was going into the room, I walked in after her, and as we passed between the rows of desks, she slipped and fell backwards. I caught her by reflex, holding her waist, she seemed more graceful that morning. For a moment, our eyes met, and her scent filled my nose, it was a clean, refreshing scent, but intoxicating, so close to her. Then she blushed and broke the gaze.

"Thanks." She said.

"No problem." I said, letting her up.

"I'm such a klutz." She said, finding a table close by and sitting down.

"You mind?" I pointed to the seat beside her.

"Not at all." She replied.

I sat down and introduced myself, "I'm Alice, by the way, Alice Cullen."

"Bella Swan."

"Bella," I repeated, "That's a beautiful name."

It was a terrible pun, but she laughed anyways, saying, "Well, thank you."

"You're new to town, aren't you?" She asked.

I nodded, "We lived in Alaska before this."

"Wow, that sounds pretty cool. Did you get to see the aurora borealis very often?"

I shrugged, "Often-ish, I guess, but the long nights in winter can get depressing, and the whole 'midnight sun' thing messes up people's sleep cycles and makes them just plain crazy."

She laughed. "Still, you're lucky, getting to live in a place where such beautiful phenomena can be seen. I've never been anywhere so cool before in my life."

"It's not so bad here," I said. "You got the Olympic National Park right on your doorstep."

"I guess, but I've grown up with it, and my Dad takes me camping there a couple times a year, so it's become familiar. I mean, I guess there'll always be new things to discover about the park, but, you know," she shrugged, "I wish I could see something truly new."

Just then, our teacher started talking, and we stopped, getting ready to take notes. As the lesson went on, I became painfully aware of the scent of her blood, which I had not noticed before because my mind was occupied with trying to figure out anything that might indicate why she was special, or why she was able to know Edward was reading her. Her blood smelled different from other humans' that I've come into contact with, hers smelled like a mix of normal human blood with something else, something ineffable that can only be compared to a sunny winter's day, where the cold is refreshing when you first step outside the door, but there's an edge to it that can freeze your nose off if you're not bundled up properly. And I find that scent dangerously attractive. Somehow, I found myself listening for her heartbeat and finding it, hearing the blood rushing through her arteries with every pulse. It was a steady, hypnotic sound. I felt almost like I could fall asleep listening to it.

Suddenly the bell rang, and the school day was over. I had completely zoned out, listening to her heartbeat. I hurriedly packed up my stuff, and Bella walked with me out the door, asking, "I guess you moved here with your family?"

I nodded. "My parents and brothers."

"Is that who you were sitting with at lunch?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Jasper and Edward. Jasper's the blond one, Edward's the one with dark hair." I half expected her to bring up the subject of Edward's mind-reading, but she didn't, so I said:

"I also have another brother, Emmett, he's older, and he's not here. He's on vacation with his girlfriend. What about you? Do you have any siblings?"

"Nope, it's just me, so my Dad's really protective, and he's the chief of police, so if anyone wants to take me out, they'd better keep their hands to themselves." She joked.

"Alice!" Edward's voice called from behind us.

We turned and saw him coming up the hallway with Jasper.

"Hi, guys, this is Bella, she's in my English Lit class." I said.

"And Algebra, if I'm not mistaken." Bella said.

I felt a smile creep onto my face for no reason. I didn't think she'd noticed me in Algebra.

"It's nice to meet you guys, Edward, Jasper." She shook their hands in turn, putting their names correctly. Jasper smiled and shook her hand, but Edward was stiff and barely touched Bella's offered hand. His eyes flashing with bloodlust, and he was straining to control himself. He was forgetting to act human, holding his breath and his movements were slightly unnaturally fast and a little spasmodic. Jasper noticed it too, by the way his eyes flickered to Edward's face. The bloodlust in Edward's eyes faded eventually, but I was pretty sure that it was with Jasper's help.

"How did you know which of us was which?" Edward demanded.

"I told her of course," I said, rolling my eyes. "It's not like she can read minds."

Jasper laughed, Bella smiled and gave me a look. Edward looked embarrassed and angry, I'm sure he'd have turned red as a beet if he had any blood flowing in his veins. But I could see how he might have made that mistake, it seemed plausible that a mind-reader might be able to tell when another mind-reader is reading them. I guess he didn't think that I might have described him and Jazz to her.

Bella walked with us all the way out to the parking lot, she pointed to an old red truck a few cars down from ours and said:

"That's me, I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. It was nice to meet you."

Our voices overlapped, the three of us, as we said goodbye to her, got into Edward's car and started for home.

**Edward crosses the parking lot towards Bella.**

**"Bella!" He shouts. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"**

**Bella stops, turns to him. "Hi Edward." She says. "What's up?"**

**"I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie tonight? There's that new Sci-Fi movie based off of A Midsummer Night's Dream, I heard Alice mention it's one of your favourite Shakespeare plays."**

**"Sure."**

**"Great. I'll be by around seven then. We'll grab a bite to eat first, is that alright with you?"**

**"That sounds great."**

Edward was tense on the ride home.

"That vision's never gonna happen." He said. "It was a mistake, and so was the one you had Christmas Eve. We're finished with her."

"What are you talking about Ed?" Jasper asked. Edward told him about my vision, and Jasper said, "I agree, you should stay away from her."

"We can't." I said, exasperated. They were the ones who voted for us to stay, and now they're balking when we've met her.

"I almost attacked her, Alice." Edward said. "Her blood smelled so delicious. I could hear it flowing through her whole body. The beat of her heart was the most beautiful music I've ever heard. Good thing Jazz pushed it down."

"I couldn't suppress it all the way that second time even when I was ready for it. And the first time, in the cafeteria, I could barely keep it down, I've never sensed a bloodlust so powerful." Jasper said.

"It was enough, Jazz," Edward said. "You did enough to let me control it. But I don't think I could stay in her presence too long without losing control, especially if you guys aren't there to help me."

"You have a class with her tomorrow." I told Ed.

* * *

"You can't skip school on your second day, Edward." I said as we entered the house through the garage. All the way home, Edward and I argued about the validity of my vision of him asking Bella on a date, he kept saying that it had to be wrong, but I didn't see how it was possible, I saw the consequence of decisions made, and of actions taken, so somewhere deep down inside Edward, he must have decided to ask Bella out. But as we got home, I had another vision, this one of Edward going off to visit with Rosalie and Emmett.

"You just watch me." He said as Jasper picked up the phone to call Rose and Emmett.

"It's your _second day,_ how is it going to look if you only went to one day of school? We're supposed to be keeping a low profile."

"How was your first day of school?" Rosalie's voice came on through the phone. "Did you meet her?"

We made a report, telling them about Bella and our first day. Like the rest of us, she and Emmett were surprised that Bella could tell when Edward was in her head, and they didn't know what to make of it either.

"So what's this about you skipping school tomorrow Ed?" Rosalie asked.

Edward sighed. He sat down and told them about the reaction he had when he met Bella.

"What did it feel like?" Emmett asked. "Describe it to me."

Edward thought for a second, then said, "You know how, when you're human, and you run all out, as fast as you can, as long as you can, and when you can't run anymore, you push yourself just a little farther, and a little farther until you finally stop, and when you do, you feel your carotid arteries pulsing in your neck, and hear the blood rushing in your ears, and your throat feels like it's closed up and you can't get any oxygen into your lungs?"

"Yeah." Emmett answered, and Jasper nodded too. I had no idea what they were talking about, I don't think I've ever felt anything like what they're describing. Edward continued:

"It's like that. Except the blood I hear pounding is flowing in her veins, and the smell of her blood is what's making my throat close up, and only the taste of it can open it back up again and let in enough oxygen to keep me alive. And the bloodlust comes over me, everything turns red, and I can't control it, I don't _want_ to control it. All I want to do is to rip her throat out and bathe in her blood."

I shivered, there was a look of pure ecstasy on Edward's face as he stared into the air, describing what he felt. His eyes had turned black, as if the very thought of Bella's blood aroused his bloodlust. That look in his face, a mixture of bloodlust and an almost sexual hunger, it revealed that primal part of what we are: hunger, rage and lust. And Jasper too, the look on his face as he listened to Edward, was entranced, as if he would give anything to feel what Edward was feeling. That scared me, I had never felt anything like that, at least not to such a degree. Rosalie and Emmett were silent too, on the other end of the line, making the whole house eerily silent, the only sound was Edward's voice, describing what he felt:

"And I could imagine it, biting into her neck, her soft, smooth flesh yielding beneath my teeth, her blood gushing into my mouth. When I first came into the cafeteria and caught her scent, I actually thought I was going to attack her. I knew if I did, I would've had to kill all the witnesses too, but in that instant, I didn't care if I had to kill the entire student body, faculty, and support staff. In fact, I think I would have enjoyed killing the rest of the school, and I would have drained them all for dessert after feeding on this Bella girl."

I felt sick, horrified, this was unbelievable, Edward was usually such a gentle person, and I can't help but wonder if this beast was inside me too. Jasper certainly looked like he was feeling it, his irises had turned dark, and his pupils were dilated and he was breathing heavily, unconsciously searching out scents of potential prey.

I suddenly thought maybe it _would_ be a good idea if Edward skipped school tomorrow, and better if he never came into contact with Bella again, because if he ever tried to hurt her, I would have to stop him.

Edward seemed to pick up on that thought, because he snapped out of it and his eyes focused on me, and that in turn, seemed to bring Jasper out of it too. I heard Emmett cleared his throat over the phone, as if he too had been entranced by Edward's words and was just now coming out of it, and he said:

"Yep, just what I thought, she's your bloodsinger."

"My what?" Edward asked.

"Bloodsinger." Emmett repeated, "It means that her blood calls out to you, it's more appealing to you than any other person's blood. It's like a drug, and theory says it's addictive, but no one knows, because no vampire has fed on a single bloodsinger for long enough to form an addiction, they drain them too fast, and always kill them."

"How do you know this Emmett?" I asked.

There was a hesitation on the other end.

**"Because I went through this." Emmett says.**

"Because I went through this." Emmett said. "Twice."

There was a moment of silence.

"It was in the mid-forties," Emmett continued. "Jazz and Ali, you weren't with us back then, and Ed, well, you were off the wagon, on your own feeding off of criminals. A few years after I got my hunger for human blood under control, I was just walking down the street one day and it found me, the scent that had me feeling like Ed just described…" He paused, "I lost control. The woman was a thirty-year-old office secretary with a ten-year-old child at home. I drained her. Her death made the papers, because her husband was a hero who died in the Second World War trying to save a platoon of his fellow soldiers.

"There was no suspicion on us, so we didn't have to move, at least not immediately. I went to her funeral, no one saw me, because I was far off, pretending to visit another grave, and that was where I found the second bloodsinger. I was drawn towards the funeral-goers, it almost felt like I wasn't in control of my own body. But when I got closer and figured out who it was, I wrenched myself away from there because I couldn't stand the thought of doing that to this second bloodsinger."

"Why? Who was it?" Edward asked.

"It was the kid. The one who I had made an orphan." Emmett answered. "I thought there was something wrong with me, so I went to Carlisle, and he told me about the bloodsingers.

"It's a term for any human who has that kind of appeal to a vampire. It's very specific, a human is usually bloodsinger to one vampire, they might still smell better than other humans to other vampires, but they won't have the same pull."

"So you think that's why I had that reaction?" Edward asked.

"Yeah. I'm surprised you were able to control yourself at all." Emmett said.

"Jasper was there, he helped me." Edward said. "But he won't always be able to, what do you think I should do?"

"I don't know," Emmett said. "I'm sorry Ed."

"But you're the only one who's experienced this." Edward said angrily.

"I know, but I didn't have to spend any time with either of my bloodsingers, so I can't tell you how to deal with this. You'll just have to wait until Carlisle gets home and ask him. But I will give you one word of advice, bloodsingers are dangerous, the instinct takes over when we're near them, and we don't make good decisions. Don't trust yourself when you're with this girl."

Edward nodded, "Thanks, Emmett." He said and hung up the phone.

Carlisle won't be back until later, so in the meanwhile, we all just went to our rooms. I couldn't stop thinking about what happened during the day though, not just Edward's reaction to Bella, but everything: the moment I first saw her, the way she looked at us in the cafeteria, and especially during the last class and after. Edward had said that other students thought she was stuck up and cold, but she didn't seem that way to me, she seemed curious, interested, and very friendly.

I looked into the future again, it was still a confusing mess, and it made my head hurt, so I gave up and decided to go hunt instead.

I let Edward know and jumped off the balcony. I headed southeast into the mountains, the wind in my hair, I loved the feeling, it cleared my head.

**"…So what should I do?" Edward asks. "Will it get any easier to deal with?"**

**"Unfortunately, no." Carlisle says. "But you can become better at dealing with it. Why don't you take some time, clear your head, go hunt. When you're full, you'll be more in control. And when you see her again, just be mindful of your actions, and remind yourself why you don't want to hurt her, and take it a second at a time."**

I checked the time, Carlisle should be just arriving home, probably coming into Edward's range at the moment. The conversation would happen in a few minutes. I didn't often know when exactly a vision would come true, but I can narrow it down more the closer it comes, and for this one, at least, it was pretty immediate, and I foresaw it happening within the next ten minutes. This wasn't a whole-family matter, so I continued hunting, catching the scent of a deer. I kept an eye out though, opening myself up a little more to the future, just so I can see when Edward decides what he will do tomorrow. I let the deer go, it was too easy, I was feeling like something a little more challenging. I wanted to fight for my meal tonight, I was feeling a little restless for some reason.

**Edward runs through the trees, up and down the slopes of the Rocky Mountains like it's level ground, chasing after a herd of deer.**

It seems Edward has taken Carlisle's advice to heart. It seems he's decided he's not going to school tomorrow. I looked a bit further in time to see when he might come back, but I couldn't see it, I can only see that he will come back at some point, but not exactly when. It seems he hasn't decided either.

I breathed in deep, focusing a little more on the hunt. It was still winter, and the smell of snow was everywhere along with the smell of the cold hard ground, but beneath it were the smell of the trees, their bark, the faint traces of the sap. I filtered out the smells, looking for the scent of a predator, something that would fight back if attacked, a bear, or a mountain lion…or, a wolf.

The wolf was south of my position, and I headed towards it. It was a lone grey wolf, not with its pack when I found it, and in the bright moonlight, it seemed almost silver. It sensed my approach and turned toward me. It saw me and bared its teeth, growling. It's funny, wolves are the only animals that are not afraid to fight us vampires. A bear for example will face us and growl, maybe raise itself onto its hind legs menacingly, but as soon as we charge it, it will turn and run; and a mountain lion will just flat out run when they catch our scent. They'll only fight when we catch up and try to bite them, but wolves are not afraid to confront us full on and attack us first. I've wondered why that is, and never came up with a better answer than "it's their nature." And a pack of wolves can actually be something of a danger to vampires who meet them alone. More often than not, the vampire survives and kills the wolves, but sometimes the vampire would be injured in the fight, and I've heard of a couple of instances where a vampire was killed by a pack of wolves, just normal wolves.

This wolf was on its own though, and I made short work of it. It was not much of a challenge like a bear or mountain lion would be if you cornered them, but I did get some of the restlessness burned out of me.

After I fed, I headed home at a leisurely walk, planning on getting back in a few hours before school starts. It would give me enough time to shower and change my clothes before school. I still wasn't sure if Edward should skip school on the second day, it would draw attention, but it was his choice, it was his instincts that might betray us, and after all, the attention he would draw from skipping is nothing compared to what would happen if he should slip in his control. Edward's description of what he felt when he smelled Bella's blood was not something I understood, because I didn't have any human memories. For every vampire, the memories of their human existence become hazy after they turn, and it gets hard to remember, but they can do it with a little effort. But I'm the exception. I don't have any human memories, not that I can recall, and since I couldn't understand what Ed goes through when he's near Bella, I decided not to question his decision to skip.


	4. Skating in Port Angeles

A/N: Hello, thank you so much for the great response I had with the last chapter. Originally, this chapter was split into two, the first ending with Edward coming back, but at the last minute I decided to add the skating part, which had been the next chapter, so the story could move on a little rather than just being filler, but I am catching up with myself, and that worries me a little. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is property of Stephanie Meyer. And I also have no idea about rinks in Port Angeles, I just made it up.

Chapter 4

Skating in Port Angeles

School is boring, every kid knows that, but for those of us who have to go through it over and over again, it becomes hell, and for us, we don't even get to meet new people to break the monotony, because we'd be afraid of exposing ourselves. But that changed the first couple of weeks we were in school in Forks, and it was because of Bella.

She caught up with me the second day, asking why Edward was not at school, I gave her the official line, that he's sick, adding as a joke, "He has what you might call a weak constitution."

It wasn't that funny, but she laughed anyways. Edward had said that everyone at the school thought she was distant and cold, and I have no reason to doubt what he said, except she seemed the opposite to me. She always smiled and waved when we saw each other in the hallway, and asked after Edward's health a couple times over the period of his absence. Her future place in our family was still in flux and very confusing, but she became our friend.

I still wasn't sure how I felt about her as a potential mate. She was gorgeous, there's no doubt about that, but I was hesitant to make the first move, I didn't even know if I _wanted_ to make the first move. Sure, I'd seen possible futures where I was with her, but they were just a few possibilities. I could see some of the paths that would bring her into my arms, but if I made the choices that led me down those paths, where does that leave Bella? Would she be choosing to love me? Or would I be forcing that choice on her because I knew all the right things to say, all the right things to do in order to make her love me? On the other hand, would I truly love her if I made my choices based on what I already knew would happen? I don't think I would be happy if I did everything according to my visions of the future, always knowing exactly what would happen. The relationship wouldn't be real, I think, it would be lopsided. Essentially, I would be manipulating her for companionship, and I don't think I would be able to feel love for her knowing that every choice I made with regards to her was done with foreknowledge. So I didn't ask her out, and restrained myself from looking too much or too far into the future of Bella's love life, or my own, or even Edward's, just to be safe.

**Bella walks into the class late, the rest of the class has already settled down, the teacher, Mr. Banner, looks up when she walks in.**

**"Ms. Swan, please sit down." Mr. Banner says. "It seems you'll finally be getting a lab partner. Our Mr. Cullen has finally decided to grace us with his presence."**

**"So," Banner says, "I need one person from each pair to come and get a set of slides for today's lab and the other person get a microscope from the sides."**

**"Hi Edward, are you feeling better now?" Bella asks, she puts down her bag and sits down, getting out her notebook.**

**"Much, thanks for asking." Edward replies, getting up to grab a microscope.**

**Bella goes and grabs the slides.**

**"I should apologize," Edward says when they both sat down again. "I was rude to you on Monday when we first met, and I'm sorry for that. I was already beginning to feel ill then, but that's no reason to be rude."**

**"I accept your apology." Bella says.**

**"So what are we doing today?" She asks after a pause.**

**"He hasn't said yet."**

**"Does that mean you don't know?"**

**"Of course it does, how would I know if he doesn't say?" Edward answers.**

**"I don't know, you tell me." Bella answers cryptically. Edward stares at her, but Bella doesn't look at him, she stares straight ahead at the board.**

**"We'll be looking at cell mitosis today," Mr. Banner says as he goes around handing out worksheets.**

"Earth to Alice! Hello?" A pale-skinned hand waved in front of my face.

Mr. Banner's voice faded as Bella's voice pulled me out of the vision. It was the Thursday of the second week I was at Forks High School, Edward will be coming back tomorrow, cheeky bastard coming back on a Friday. The first two week had gone well so far, Jasper and I stayed low-key, nothing to draw attention, no odd, vampiric behaviour, until now, at least. I realized that I had been just standing there in front of my locker, like a statue, holding a book up in mid-air as the vision came to me. I turned and saw Bella standing with some of her friends behind her. She dropped her hand and asked:

"What were you thinking about?"

I shook my head, "Nothing." Her friends looked at me and passed a silent look between themselves.

"These are my friends," she said. "Angela and Jessica. Guys, this is Alice."

"Hi," The two girls muttered together. Angela was a short girl with black hair, glasses and seemed very shy. Jessica on the other hand had brown hair, with a slightly up-turned nose that made her seem like she's arrogant and looking down her nose at everyone, she didn't seem particularly friendly, and looked at me like I stole her boyfriend or something.

"Hi." I nodded to the two girls. This was the first time Bella introduced any of her friends to me.

"Come on, Bella, just hurry up and ask her already." Jessica said impatiently.

I looked at Bella curiously.

"Why don't you guys go on without me? I want to hang out with Alice for a while."

Jessica let out an annoyed sigh.

"We'll see you tomorrow then." Angela said, dragging Jessica away.

"I can't believe she ditched us again for the new girl." Jessica grumbled as she walked away, her voice low enough that Bella probably wouldn't have heard her.

"Come on, Jessica," I heard Angela say as I continued what I was doing before the vision struck. "She's a good friend, and she has a right to hang out with whoever she wants."

"I just don't get what's so interesting about them." Jessica complained.

"Are you jealous Jessica?" Angela asked.

Jessica scoffed, "What do I have to be jealous about?"

"If you like her, you should ask her out." Angela said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jessica said with a tinge of panic in her voice.

"If you say so." Angela said. "But none of us would see you differently if you like Bella, Jess. Who knows, maybe she likes you back."

"You think?" Jessica asked hopefully.

They turned a corner then and went out of even my vampiric hearing. I finished arranging my books in my locker, putting back the ones I used for the day.

"So what is it you wanted to ask me?" I asked, starting to head out of the school.

"It's nothing important, just that, some of us are going to spend Saturday in Port Angeles, do you want to come with us?"

"Do you guys have anything planned or are you just going to hang out?" I asked.

She shrugged, "We don't really have anything specific planned, except we were planning on a little skating at the rink there."

"Skating?" I asked.

Bella nodded.

"Are you sure that's a good idea considering you can hardly keep your feet on solid ground?" I teased, thinking back to the first time we met.

She blushed. "You'd be surprised." She said, pretending to be indignant. "I'm almost graceful when I'm on the ice."

I can't help laughing at her reaction.

"So are you coming?" Bella smiled back at me, dropping the indignant act.

"Sure, I'd love to." I said as we came into the parking lot. Our cars were just a few spaces apart, so we headed in the same direction. There was someone waiting by her car, a tall Native American boy leaned against her driver side door with his arms crossed. A boyish grin spread across his face when he saw us coming out. He waved and shouted, "Bella!"

Bella smiled and waved back.

"Is that your boyfriend?" I asked. I haven't seen this coming. Nothing in my visions indicated she had a boyfriend when we meet her. Nothing to indicate she didn't either, but I'd assumed that she didn't, and for some reason, the thought came into my mind that maybe I should make some excuse and not go skating with her.

"No." She seemed shocked. "That's Jacob, we grew up together."

"He's like a brother to me." She explained.

"Oh." I felt relieved for some reason.

"Our dads are fishing buddies, and our families used to go camping together. Jake, his dad and some of their friends are coming over for dinner tonight. Come on, I'll introduce you."

We walked to her car, and she said:

"Hey Jake, I'd like you to meet Alice, she's a new friend, she just moved into town with her family. Alice, this is Jacob."

He held out his hand, smiling, "Hi, nice to meet you." He said.

I nodded and took his hand, giving it a firm shake.

"Nice to meet you too. You don't go to school here?"

"No," he shook his head, "Most of us reservation kids go to school closer to home."

The reservation, of course, he's one of the Quileutes, I wondered if he was one of those shapeshifters. I wondered how I would be able to tell. From what Carlisle told us about them, they seemed to have a deep-rooted enmity against us, but Jacob didn't seem at all suspicious or hostile when he shook my hand. He seemed completely relaxed, so it was a good bet that he wasn't one of the wolves.

"So did you drive your dad over?" Bella was asking Jacob.

"Yeah, I dropped him off at your house with Charlie, he's off early today."

Bella nodded. "It was a slow day at the station."

Jacob nodded understandingly, then said, "I wanted to come by and tell you, I finally found that part we've been looking for."

Bella's face lit up with excitement, "That's great! We can finish it now."

"We can finish it tonight if you want." Jacob said, grinning.

Bella was grinning too, but I was completely confused, "What are we talking about?" I asked.

"It's this old motorbike we've been trying to fix up," Bella explained, "We've been trying to find a missing part for ages, and Jacob's finally got it."

"Well congratulations." I said. Bella and Jacob kept talking about what they'd do when they finally got the bike up and running again, how they'd test it out, and I felt like an outsider. It was the first time I've felt that way when I'm with Bella since I've met her, and it made me uncomfortable, which was ridiculous, since I haven't even known her two weeks, but somehow she's always made me feel like I've known her my whole life. They came to a natural pause in the conversation, and Bella glanced at me again, and she seemed to sense that I was feeling left out, and she put a hand on my arm and said:

"When we get it fixed, I'll take you on a ride some time."

I can't help but smile back at her enthusiasm, "That sounds great." I replied sincerely.

"So are you ready to go?" Jacob asked Bella.

Bella nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ali." She said to me.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." I gave her a smile.

She got in her car and Jacob followed after loading his bike onto the bed of the truck. Bella drove off after giving me another wave and I headed to Jasper's car where he was waiting for me.

Edward will be back tonight, I see him coming in around 1 or 2 in the morning, but he'll come in when he's ready, and I didn't bother telling everyone else about it, instead, I did my homework, which took all of half an hour, and watched a few movies with Esme when she came back from her shift at the hospital, then settled down around midnight with a copy of _Lord of the Rings_. I had left off just after the Council of Elrond and kept reading from there, and I had made it to the bridge of Khazad-Dûm, where Gandalf was about to confront the Balrog, when a vision came.

**Edward stands beside the window, watching the sleeping girl, her breath is even and slow, she is deep asleep. Edward takes a deep breath and steps forward.**

I felt a rush of fear of what he might do to Bella. I didn't wait to see any more. I leapt off my bed and out my balcony door down to the ground and headed off in a mad rush for Bella's house, keeping an eye on the future and praying that he wouldn't lose control before I got there. This was completely unexpected, the event would come to pass in fifteen seconds. Edward decided this completely on impulse.

It took me five minutes to get there, the longest five minutes I have ever known. I could see the future as if Edward would keep his control, but there was also an uncertainty to it, as if it could change at any moment, it's like Schrodinger's cat, both alive and dead at the same time, except it's Bella who's both alive and dead at the same time from my point of view.

I began shouting for Edward in my head as soon as I was in range of his ability. Nothing happened as I arrived outside Bella's window, Edward managed to keep his control.

I climbed up to her window and gently opened it, Edward didn't lock it when he went in, it would have made it hard to escape if she woke up. I jumped through the window from my tree branch, landing lightly on the floor of Bella's room.

_What the hell are you doing?_ I asked Edward inside my head.

**"What's it look like?" He retorts, "I'm ending this once and for all."**

I wondered why he hasn't bitten her yet if he wanted to end it now. Edward rolled his eyes.

**"Because I don't want to kill her." Edward says. "I figured, if I can get through the night with her so close, then I'll be able to handle being in the same class as her, and if I can't handle it, then it's better if I fed on her here and now without the potential exposure to the witnesses at school."**

That actually made sense, except I can't let that second part happen. If he loses control, I will do whatever I have to in order to stop him from hurting Bella.

Edward obviously heard my thoughts, because he rolled his eyes and shook his head, giving me a look that seemed to call me a stubborn bitch. I bared my teeth at him semi-threateningly and hopped out the window and sat down on the tree branch hanging just outside. I watched Edward for a while as he turned his attention back onto Bella, then I shifted my gaze to Bella too, she looked beautiful, even without her make up and with her hair all messed up. I opened myself up a little to the future, specifically, Edward's, and cleared my mind, focusing only on Bella's face. That way, I didn't have any substantial thoughts for Edward to read, it was a trick I learned, a sort of meditative technique.

We made it through the night, with Edward standing at the foot of Bella's bed and breathing deeply and evenly, I guess he wanted to get as much of her scent as possible so he could be sure that he can really handle it. But at around 6, Bella stirred a little in her bed, and a small smile came across her face, she was dreaming. I wondered what she was dreaming about.

Edward looked up at me,** "She's dreaming about skating, with you and some girls from the school."**

I smiled a little, remembering what Bella said about being almost graceful on the ice. _I think we should leave._ I said to Edward in my head. _She'll be waking up soon._ In about half an hour to be exact. Edward glanced back at Bella one more time and nodded. He opened the window and jumped out onto the tree branch, closing the window behind him. We ran back home together.

* * *

Friday happened exactly as I had foreseen for Edward and Bella: they talked in class, Edward apologized for his rudeness, and after school, as we walked out to the parking lot after school, Edward, Jasper and I, we saw Bella heading toward her car and Edward said:

"Would you guys wait for me by the car?" He crossed the parking lot and caught up with Bella.

"Hey Bella!" He called out, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Bella stopped and turned to him. I couldn't hear what they were saying very clearly, but I could guess, Edward was probably asking Bella to see the Sci-Fi adaptation of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, like I'd seen him do in the vision I had after the first day of school.

When Edward came back, I raised an eyebrow at him and gave him a smug smile, I knew I was right about that vision. His lips thinned slightly but he didn't say anything.

I glanced toward Bella and I suddenly remembered I hadn't asked her about the plans for tomorrow, so I caught up with her as she opened her truck's door.

"Hi Alice," She said. "How was your first week at Forks High School? Are you still coming skating with us?"

I shrugged, "It was okay, a little boring, and yeah, I am, but I was wondering how it's going to work, are we meeting somewhere beforehand and driving there together?"

"Lauren's picking some people up in her car, and I'm supposed to pick up the rest in my truck."

"Oh." A thought suddenly occurred to me, "How many people are coming?"

"Besides you and me? There's Lauren, Jessica, Angela, her boyfriend Ben, Katie, Eric, and Mike. I'm supposed to pick up Angela, her boyfriend Ben, and Katie and I guess you. Actually, I'm not sure my truck is supposed to fit five people, so it might get crowded."

"I can borrow my Mom's car for you if you want." I offered. "It can hold five people no problem."

"That'd be great." She said.

"Okay, then I guess I'll pick you up tomorrow, then we can go around picking up the others." I said. "What time though?"

"We agreed to meet up with Lauren at her place around nine, so come around eight and we should be fine. Here, let me give you my address."

She took a pen from her pocket and wrote her address down in the palm of my hand.

"Do I need to bring my own skates?" I asked, I didn't have my own pair, I wondered if it would be a problem.

"No, some of us will bring our own, but the rink has a rental place, so you'll be okay if you don't have any skates."

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow then?"

She nodded, "Bright and early." She said cheerfully.

I smiled, waved goodbye and went back to the car.

* * *

Later that evening, Edward left for his date. When I knew he had driven out of range and couldn't hear my thoughts anymore, I took a little peek into the future at his date. I know I promised myself that I wouldn't look into our future love lives, but I couldn't help being curious. Besides, I'm only looking into their date.

I saw Edward arriving at Bella's house, knocking on the door and a man who must have been Bella's father answering the door. Then Bella comes down, they say hi to each other and Bella asks about Jasper and me. Apparently, she hadn't known this was a date, there was an awkward moment, but it passed and they left in Edward's car.

I saw them getting in the car and driving off to the local diner and I skimmed over the dinner and the movie to when Edward dropped Bella off back at her house. Edward, being the gentleman that he is, walks Bella to the door and gives her a hug before leaving.

"How did your date go?" I asked Edward when he returned that night.

He shrugged, "Alright."

"Did you find out anything about how she knew you were reading her mind?"

"We didn't talk about that." He answered. "I was too distracted by having to eat human food."

I laughed.

"Where's Jasper?" Edward asked.

I smirked, "He got a call from Jane, so he's in his room talking to her."

"Jane, from the Volturi guard?" Edward asked.

I nodded.

"Why would he be talking to her? Is there some kind of trouble?"

"No, I think they just really connected when she visited us in Alaska. They've been talking quite often since we moved here."

"Really? They didn't spend that much time together when she visited. She didn't even stay for more than a day."

I shrugged, "I guess these things can happen pretty suddenly, one day you see someone in a completely different light, even though you've known them for a while. Besides, it's not like we really knew anything about her before."

"I don't know. I don't like her. She has a bad reputation."

It was true, she did, but it was just a reputation that we knew, not much else. Jane and her brother Alec are collectively known as the Witch Twins, they were the most feared members of the Volturi guard, they can incapacitate people without ever touching them. Jane had the ability to cause agonizing pain in anyone she wished, and Alec can paralyze people. They were old too, older than any of us except Carlisle. They've been with the Volturi ever since they were turned, and were extremely loyal, especially to Aro, the leader of the Volturi. But I wondered what it meant that Jane was talking to Jasper so much. Jasper seemed convinced that it wasn't a Volturi ploy to keep tabs on us, but I wondered what would happen if their relationship worked out. Would Jane leave the Volturi or would Jasper leave us? My visions have nothing to say on this, maybe because it's too early in their relationship yet to talk about things like that. I hope it works out for them though; Jasper deserves to be happy.

* * *

I asked Esme about borrowing her car when she arrived home that night. She, being the coolest mother in the world, said yes, so the next day, at eight in the morning, I drove Esme's minivan over to Bella's.

Her father opened the door when I knocked, I've never met him before, but he seemed to be a mild-mannered guy for a police chief.

"Hi, you must be Chief Swan, Bella's dad, I'm Alice Cullen." I said, offering him my hand.

He gave me the once over, looking me up and down before he shook my hand. "Call me Charlie." He replied.

"Bella!" He yelled. "Your friend's here!"

"I'll be down soon!" I heard Bella shout from somewhere upstairs.

To me, he said, "Come on in. She'll be down in a minute."

I obeyed. He led me into the living room. The house looked normal inside, everything was normal, couch, TV, coffee table, there were pictures of him and Bella either alone or together, doing various things. Most pictures were of the two of them together, the rest mostly showed her at various school events. Pictures with just him were in significant minority, the few there were showed him outdoors, fishing, occasionally with a buddy. There were no pictures of Bella's mother anywhere, and I couldn't help wondering why that was. I didn't think Bella and I knew each other long enough for me to ask about her mother yet, no matter how much I felt like I've known her my whole life, so I filed the question away for a later date.

Charlie was standing around a little awkwardly while I glanced around. Clearly he didn't want to leave a stranger unsupervised in his house, but didn't quite know what to say.

"So tell me, can she _really_ skate?" I asked, trying to diffuse the awkwardness. "She doesn't seem very coordinated. Don't get me wrong, I think her clumsiness is kind of endearing, but isn't it a bit dangerous on the ice?"

Charlie chuckled, relaxing a little. "She skates really well actually," He said proudly, "She's a natural at it. It took her about a day to learn, but she never tripped on the ice even once after that."

"Good to know."

"You're Dr. Cullen's kid aren't you?" He asked.

I nodded.

"He's a good doctor. Good man too. It was your brother who took Bella to the movies last night right?"

"Yeah, Edward, I think he really likes Bella."

"And you?"

"I like her too, very much."

He looked at me for a moment, as if searching for something in my face, then nodded and said, as if he found what he was looking for, "Good."

There were footsteps hurrying down the stairs. I turned around just in time to see Bella slip on the last step and falling back onto the steps behind her. She was wearing warm winter clothes, but not bundled up very tightly. She had a pair of skates tied together by the laces, which she held on to. I went and gave her a hand.

"Hi Alice." She smiled, embarrassed.

"Hi Bella, ready to go?"

"Yep." Then to her father, she said, "Bye Dad, I'll see you tonight."

"Have fun." He said.

I waved to Charlie and followed Bella out the door.

"Nice car." Bella said as I unlocked it.

I shrugged. "It's alright. You want to drive?"

"Are you sure your mom would be okay with it?"

"Yeah, she won't have a problem with you driving." I said. "Besides, you can't be any worse than me."

She raised an eyebrow.

"I speed a lot." I explained. "Well?" I held the key up and jingled it as much as I could.

She considered it for a moment, then said, "Best not."

"Suit yourself."

I got in the driver seat and started the car as Bella let herself in the passenger side. She gave me directions and we went around and picked up the others, then drove over to Lauren's.

By five minutes past nine, we were on our way to Port Angeles. I drove the car like I normally drove my Porsche, and kept an eye on the immediate future. The others in the car kept complaining that I was driving too fast and told me to slow down, but I didn't, I only slowed down if we were about to meet a police car.

The drive from Forks to Port Angeles usually took about an hour, we made it in forty-five minutes. Bella gave me the directions to the rink and we got there around ten.

The rink was a rectangular sheet of ice with lines painted for hockey, which wasn't on the schedule today. There were already a few people on the ice, but not a lot. Bella took me to the rental booth where I rented a pair of skates and we went out onto the ice.

I had warned her that I'd never been skating before. She couldn't believe it, saying that she would have thought that Alaska would be great for winter sports. But she agreed to teach me. So when I took my first steps on the ice, she was holding my hand, but it didn't help, I took two steps and fell on my ass. She winced sympathetically, but it was quickly replaced by amusement.

She helped me up again, and told me how to push with one foot and glide on the other. I tried to follow her instructions as best I could, which was not very well at all. Bella had to hold both my hands and skate backwards while I struggled along like a toddler taking her first steps.

After a while, Jessica came over and wanted to drag Bella away to race a few laps. I hadn't even known that the people in the other car had arrived. I looked at my wristwatch, and it was already eleven o'clock, and everyone from Forks were on the ice, the couples paired off, and some of the singles getting ready to race as Jessica returned to them alone, Bella having refused. I got distracted by the others and forgot what I was doing with my feet, resulting in me falling forward into Bella's arms, bringing her to the ground along with me. She shrieked as we went down in a heap. I fell on top of her and she laughed.

"Maybe you should just go have fun without me." I said, feeling her arms around my waist. "I don't seem to be very good at this."

She laughed again. "Nonsense, you've only started. It takes some time and practice."

"Alright." I sighed melodramatically, starting to push myself up, but I forgot about the ice and slipped again, and my forehead knocked into Bella's, essentially head-butting her, and we both went down again.

"Ow!" Bella groaned, wheezing. She rubbed her forehead with one hand. She couldn't stop wheezing, and I was getting worried, until I realized that she was laughing. I had never been more embarrassed in my life. I'm vampire, I'm supposed to be graceful and good at everything I try my hand at. After an hour of practice, I should be flying across the ice, but for some reason, I'm not.

It was her, I decided after we struggled to our feet and I started to practice again. It's her hands, holding mine, soft but firm, making my skin tingle, it was very distracting. Luckily, Bella was a very patient teacher, we practiced for another half an hour, then I told her she should go have some fun. I told her I was tired and I needed to rest. It was a lie, but I figured she probably wouldn't want me to drag her down all day, so I sat down on the seats at the edge of the rink and watched for a while.

Bella lied, she wasn't _almost_ graceful on the ice, she was the most graceful creature I've ever seen. She made skating seem effortless, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her, her hair and scarf whipping as she sped across the rink, adding in a turn here, a twirl there, or a jump every now and then. She was breathtaking.

She joined her friends after a few minutes, and they played tag. Bella won, she never got tagged even once. Around noon, there was a sharp whistle, and Bella skated over to me with her friends trailing behind her and said:

"The Zamboni's going to come out in a few minutes to clean the ice, so we'll take a break and go for lunch. Come on." She gave me her hands and pulled me up. We all got off the ice and headed to a nearby diner.

I ordered a sandwich for lunch, to keep up appearances. I even managed to keep it down for a while.

After lunch, we went back out there and Bella continued to teach me how to skate. It was about three in the afternoon when I finally felt like I was getting the hang of it, at least I didn't have to have Bella hold my hands to keep me from falling on my ass every couple of steps anymore.

We didn't stay very much longer after that. We got off the rink, and I returned my skates, then we just drove around Port Angeles for a while, Bella pointing out some of the places where they usually went to shop. She drove us home afterwards in Esme's car. She said, in a teasing, sarcastic tone, that she didn't want to risk all our lives with the way I drove.

"I don't think your friends like me much." I said, after dropping everyone else off and we were alone in the car.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I don't know why though. They probably just need to spend more time with you, get to know you better."

"I doubt that." I chuckled. I knew why, it was because their subconscious registers a predator and wanting to distance themselves.

"I don't think they see what you see in me." I said, a little self-deprecatingly.

"Then they're not very smart." She said.

I smiled. We were coming up on the side-road that leads to our house, and, on impulse, I told her to turn.

She obeyed and turned onto the unpaved dirt road.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"My house." I said. "I want you to meet my parents."

I gave her directions and we came up to the house ten minutes later. I hit the remote for the garage doors.

"You can park it in the garage, I'll take you home in my car."

She did as I said and pulled the minivan into an empty space in the garage. We got out and locked the doors, then went in to the house.

Edward and Jasper were on the couch, playing a MMORPG, and they didn't even look up when we came in.

"Hi guys, I'm home." I said.

Edward and Jasper ignored me.

"Do all your siblings treat you this way when you're at home?" Bella asked.

Edward's head whipped around as soon as Bella spoke, and he stood up just a little too fast, then he got a little embarrassed and slowed down, taking the time to pause the game and Jasper followed suit.

"Emmett is worse," I said, amused. "At least when he's playing video games. I swear, Emmett has a serious addiction to these games."

"Hi Edward, Jasper."

They nodded to Bella and muttered a greeting.

"How was skating Alice?" Esme's voice asked, coming down the stairs with the sound of her footsteps.

"It was fun when I stopped falling on my ass every ten seconds." I answered. "Mom, I'd like you to meet Bella."

"Hello dear." Esme said, offering her hand.

Bella shook it. "Hi Mrs. Cullen."

"Esme, please." Esme said. I could see she liked Bella, and I could see how badly she wanted her to be the mate of someone in the family. She's always thinking about us, trying her best to make us feel loved.

"Okay then, Esme."

"Carlisle!" Esme called up, "There's someone here for you to meet."

Carlisle came down a moment later and Esme introduced Bella to him.

"Hello Bella, nice to meet you, we've heard a lot about you." Carlisle said.

"Hello Dr. Cullen."

I tapped Bella on her forearm, "I'm just going to change my clothes, and then I'll take you home, okay?"

She nodded. I headed upstairs, but I heard Carlisle asking, "How did Alice do on her first time skating?"

He sounded like a proud parent asking about his six year old's first day at school and expecting the teacher to say his child is a genius because he's always thought so.

"She did great." Bella said.

"She's lying, I was terrible." I interjected, stopping on the stairs and leaning over the handrails. "You can tell because my clothes are all wet from falling on the ice so much."

Everyone laughed at my admission, and I left them in the living room to chat. My clothes weren't actually as wet as they could be, because my body temperature was the same as the outside temperature, so the ice and snow that got stuck to my clothes when I fell down only melted when I was in the diner for lunch and when I got in the car heading home. But they were still wet and uncomfortable, which is why I wanted to change.

I changed quickly then went back down. Bella was still talking to Carlisle and Esme, and Edward and Jasper had gone back to their game. My parents were asking her about her childhood, growing up, and she was talking about her friendship with Jacob and some of the kids on the reservation, and Carlisle's posture and expression became more guarded. He knows that the wolves wouldn't like vampires being so friendly with her.

"Okay, let's go." I said.

Bella waved goodbye to Carlisle and Esme and followed me out to the garage. We got in my Porsche, I pulled out of the garage. I didn't drive too fast this time, sticking pretty much to the speed limit, sometimes even under, which is very slow for me, so slow that I had only one hand on the steering wheel.

"It was really nice meeting your parents." Bella said.

"I'm sure they enjoyed meeting you too." I replied.

"Were you ever worried?" I asked as we turned off the unpaved forest road onto the main road towards the town.

"About what?"

"When I told you to turn off onto the side road, were you worried about where we were going?"

"No, why would I be?" she asked, seeming confused.

"Because I was leading you off into the woods, and you don't know me that well. Weren't you worried that I might be planning on hurting you?"

"No." She said, as if she never even considered the possibility. "I trust you."

Three simple little words. When I told her to turn, she did so without question, and why? Because she trusts me. I struggled to comprehend how she could say that, after all, she's only known me for a fortnight. I looked over at her and felt a swell of emotions I couldn't put a name to. She smiled at me and took my free hand, the one I wasn't using to hold the steering wheel, the look in her eyes was so gentle and reassuring. I gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

It was past five o'clock when I parked the car in front of Bella's house, and it was already starting to get dark. She invited me in to say hi to Charlie.

Charlie was sitting on the couch, watching TV.

"Hi Dad, I'm home." Bella said.

"Hey Bells, how was it today?" Charlie asked, turning around.

"Good, I'm going to put my stuff in my room." She replied, already heading up the stairs.

Charlie stood up when he saw me. I entered the living room.

"Hi Charlie." I said.

"Alice." He smiled. "So how was it?"

"It was good, we had fun. Bella is a very good teacher."

He nodded. "And what do you think of her skating abilities now?"

I remembered the way Bella moved on the ice and smiled, "She was just… wow!"

"Yeah, that's my girl." He said proudly.

"How was your day sir?" I asked.

"Quiet." He replied.

Bella came down, she must have just dropped everything on the floor without putting them away properly.

"Thanks for inviting me, Bella." I said. "And thanks for teaching me to skate."

She smiled, seeming a little shy and embarrassed, "You're welcome. I had fun teaching you."

"I guess I'll see you Monday?"

"Definitely." She nodded.

She hugged me. I tensed, unused to hugging humans. Her unique scent filled my nose, like fresh snow in winter, with a hint of pinesap. I could feel her heartbeat in my chest, it felt like my own heart had started beating again. It was a wonderful feeling, a feeling I had forgotten, a feeling that I didn't know I missed. I relaxed, and I hugged her back, enjoying the illusory heartbeat while I had it.

Bella sighed against me, taking a deep breath and letting it out. Then she let go. We stepped back from each other, "Bye then." I said, lingering slightly.

She nodded.

"Bye Charlie." I said.

"Bye Alice." Charlie called back.

I waved to Bella and went out the door.


End file.
